Posted on

The 40 Percent Rule

The 40 Percent Rule

Back in 2011, a friend spoke of these magical financial vehicles called “index funds”. What was news to me at the time sparked immediate deep research and eventual action.

Index funds have seen massive traction in the “FIRE” or Financial Independence, Retire Early community. And while there are many funds that track many indexes, the most common recommendations made tend to track the following indexes:

Whether right or wrong, the general consensus from this community is that for every $100 invested today, it will pay you back $4 every year, for at least 33 years.

This is known as the 4 percent rule, and is the “safe withdrawal rate” that finance bloggers like MMM, jlcollinsnh, Millenial Revolution and everyone else rehashing the same stuff over and over are talking about (no disrespect, there’s just very little “new” information).

Continue reading “The 40 Percent Rule”

Posted on

No Script

No Script

Life’s cultural script is straightforward, right?

  1. learn to be nice to others
  2. apply yourself in school
  3. go to university, college or some sort of technical training
  4. get a job
  5. find a partner
  6. get married
  7. work hard in your career
  8. save money
  9. buy a house
  10. have kids
  11. work until you’re 65+
  12. retire

Depending on what country you grow up in, the demographic you are in and who your parents are, this script may look different to you, but I’d wager regardless of where you were raised, there’s some sort of prescribed script that has been passed down to you.

And while it’s not uncommon for people to deviate from this script – by choosing not having kids, retiring at 55, or building a business instead of a career, traditionally most people followed most of their life’s script.

But with the rise of the digital nomads, widespread entrepreneurship, remote work and financial independence, more and more are going to discover the unique challenges associated with their newfound freedom.

Continue reading “No Script”

Posted on

How I Became Location Independent

Georgetown in Malaysia

I’ve been asked a number of times recently to write up “my story”. Usually I try and write with you, the reader in mind, but it’s been made clear to me that sharing my personal experiences has a lot of value to those aspiring to become location independent (trust me, it’s not all travel and mountain biking as my Instagram might depict).

When so many “digital nomad coaches” post aspirational photos of themselves getting sand in their laptops or developing text neck at the beach, then claim the answers are all in their $49 ebook, it’s understandable many of you are skeptical.

My goal is to tell you one man’s story of how he got to where he is today. With any luck there’ll be something of use here.

I am not a guru. I am not wildly successful. I have just carved out a humble existence while remaining independent of a single city or country.

In this post I’ll run through how I found myself half way down this path before realising it was even a path, lessons along the way, and my current situation.

Continue reading “How I Became Location Independent”

Posted on

You Don’t Owe Me a Thing

A letter to my son.

It’s been a week since you were born, but I’ve been thinking about this since well before you were conceived.

The job of a parent is a tough one. It will be hard for your mother and I, as it was for our parents and their parents. We will make mistakes, but will do our very best to correct them.

“No matter what you want, or how you intend to get it, you have to pay a price for it.”

There are many a price to pay when bringing a child into this world.

Continue reading “You Don’t Owe Me a Thing”

Posted on

The Best Place to Live in Andorra

Carretera de Montaup in Canillo is a beautiful place to live

When we first came to Andorra, I didn’t really know where we should live. We read a few things online and watched a couple of videos, but none of them told the full story.

We chose to live in Andorra for it’s great lifestyle, so we wanted to pick the best place to live in the country that suited our needs.

In this post I’ll run you through each region, give some pros and cons and tell you my favourite areas of each comu.

Continue reading “The Best Place to Live in Andorra”